1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coin handling system utilized in banking facilities et al. and more specifically to a coin recieving and wrapping apparatus in which received coins are discriminated and are wrapped according to denomination.
2. Prior Art Description
A large amount of coins must be processed in banking facilities, taxi services and the like so as to detect false coins, calculate the value thereof, discriminate thereof according to denomination etc. For instance, in a bank, lots of coins collected from retailers and the like are counted and are wrapped according to denomination. For carrying out this kind of operation, banks usually posseses both a coin receiving machine and a coin wrapping machine. The coin receiving machine receives coins in a hopper and discriminates false coins from genuine ones and then counts the number of coins of each denomination. Having the denominations and the numbers of the coins, the machine further calculates the total value of the received coins. A machine of this kind is, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Public-Disclosure No. 55-92990.
The coin wrapping machine is provided with a discrimination mechanism by which coins put therein are discriminated and divided into groups according to denomination. The coins of the same denomination are stacked into a certain number and wrapped in transparent film material and the like in a wrapping portion in the machine. In the conventional discrimination mechanism, coins are sorted in order from larger diameter coins to smaller ones and accordingly the wrapping operation is carried out from the larger coins to the smaller ones. A typical coin wrapping machine is disclosed in Japanese Patent Public-Disclosure No. 59-84721.
Thus, an operator has firstly to put coins into a coin receiving machine in order to calculate the total value of the coins. After that he or she has to take out the calculated coins from the receiving machine and bring them into a separate coin wrapping machine in order to have the coins wrapped by denomination and in the same number.
As described above, the conventional coin handling process needs two separate machines, a coin receiving machine and a coin wrapping machine, which therefore requires space for installation of these two machines. An operator has to operate the separate machines individually, so operation of the machines tends to be more elaborate. Further, after processing of the coins in the receiving machine, they must be transferred to the separate wrapping machine, so an operator has to do the additional work of carrying the coins to the wrapping machine, and there arises a likelihood of coins being lost during the transfer. In addition, if the wrapping operation is not carried out immediately after the processing of the coins, the processed coins must be temporarily stored in a safe until the wrapping operation thereof is initiated.
In addition, the conventional discrimination mechanism is constructed to sort coins in order from larger diameter ones to smaller ones, and denomination of coins to be wrapped first cannot be arbitrarily selected.